More than a quarter of rural business owners are worried about the level of investment in rural areas.
The CLA and Smiths Gore’s Rural Economy Index examined more than 100 businesses in the countryside during the first quarter of this year and found that, despite higher confidence, lower levels of investment are still a worry for rural businesses.
Keeping pay rates on the right lines is essential and following our employment feature last week, Agricultural Wages Board member Matthew Belsey has pointed out the need to be aware of variations between the agricultural minimum wage and national minimum wage rates.
The company behind the Chicago grain futures exchange, CME Group, is to launch a new Black Sea wheat futures contract on 6 June
Beef farmers in Scotland started to receive their share of £22m of European funding this week as payments for the 2011 Scottish Beef Calf Scheme began
A new brokerage service has been launched to help farmers access funding for renewable energy projects
It is almost a year since the Ensus bioethanol plant on Teesside closed temporarily, but there is still no confirmed date for its reopening, despite reports that maintenance work has been stepped up
In a drive to cut costs ANM Group is consulting staff at Scotch Premier Meats, Inverurie, about making up to 30 redundancies by early June.
Publication of the draft Finance Bill following the Budget has clarified the position on the charging of Stamp Duty Land Tax on farmhouses.
It looks as though the rise in Cheddar and butter prices at Fonterra’s dairy commodities auction earlier this month was something of a blip
Steer producers should take care to produce quality carcases after the proportion meeting the conformation target fell back from 58% to 56% from 2010 to 2011. This appears to be a developing trend that has continued since 2009, when the figure was 60%, according to the EBLEX report. “One possible explanation is that producers may [...]